ACT III, Scene 2

Lina flipped to the next page in her
book, stopping for a moment to stroke the smooth, delicate paper in her
hand.Paper books were a vintage rarity,
one hardly ever saw them anymore, and they were considered collector's
items.No one had seen paper in any
other form for decades, since trees had been labeled endangered.Lina got a headache from reading text on a
computer screen, so she chose to read books while she worked her shift
monitoring the diagnostic chambers.Sure, she endured a lot of ribbing from her workmates, but she took it
in stride.

The light blue computer screen on
the desk in front of her blipped open and an image of a scientist
appeared."Lina?"

Lina quickly put down her book
abashedly, spine up, and assumed a commanding position."Yes, sir?"

"Is Zero still in sleep?"

"Yes."

"Did he mention anything about
where he put his funding report, by any chance?"

"Mm, nope."

"Darn, okay, when he gets up
can you tell him to bring down his space colony report, when he gets a
chance?"

"Will do.I'll send him a message."

"Thanks."He cut the communication, returning the
screen to a blue readout of the tests being performed.

Lina accessed Zero's chamber
interface, and struck up a communication line to him.'WHEN UP, NEED SPACE COLONY REPORT' she wrote
in.She looked above her console at the
diagnostic chamber holding Zero.He
looked as if he was sleeping, to any other human, but those smart enough about
the way MHHQ worked knew he had full consciousness at this point.He was simply operating in a low power mode
so the tests could complete as quickly as possible.After absorbing the blast and getting
repaired, he wanted to get back on his feet as soon as possible.The tests were the final stage in his
mending, just to make sure everything had gone right.

Zero made no motion, though Lina was
sure he had gotten the message.The
computer had a direct line to his system, and she could communicate in simple
text.As if telepathically, Zero wrote
back on the screen 'REPORT'S IN MY ROOM'.And then, 'HOW MUCH LONGER DO I HAVE TO COMPLETE?'

Lina looked at the second monitoring
screen.The overall percentage bar was
nearly full.She wrote back '95% NO
ERRORS.'

'I'LL JUST GET IT MYSELF.SEVERE CONNECTIONS.'

Lina arched her eyebrow.'YOU MIGHT SUFFER A MEMORY FAULT.'

'WHATEVER.'

Lina entered the command to end the
diagnostics prematurely.A pressurized
hiss sounded as Zero's connections were severed and the glass capsule cover
slid back.Zero blinked awake, and lifted
his torso up."I've broken early
before, never had an error," he spoke in words, as if he had been
communicating that way all along.He
swung his legs over the edge of the capsule, hanging there for a moment as he
re-oriented himself and stood up.

"Any
dreams?" Lina asked, as she picked her book back up."Log didn't show any."

"No."

Zero started taking plugs out of the
various points and access panels on and under his armor."Is that X who wanted the report.

"Zero, it was just an accident,
you should forgive him."She
clutched her book in front of her chest, as if it were a comforting teddy
bear."I'm sure he feels terrible
about it."

"Maybe.But that doesn't mean he shouldn't have done
it."He unhooked the last cord and
dropped it in the chamber seat.He
walked up to Lina's desk."I don't
know how much you know about arm cannon design, but it doesn't go off just from
a simple jostle."

"No, I know, but X didn't mean
to fire it at you.Once its charged you have to let it diffuse or let off the blast,
and it takes a lot more effort to diffuse it.X was surprised, that's all."

"That doesn't excuse his
behavior."

"No, that's true.Do you know why he did it?"

"No idea.I just walked in on him."

"Well, maybe you should talk to
him, try and find out why.It might
help.You wouldn't want there to be a
rift between you two.That would be bad
for morale to say the least."

Zero nodded, understanding the
importance of the two command leaders being in sync."I just need some more time, I'm still pretty
angry about it.I'll give it some time
to let it cool down.How is
morale?"Zero sometimes asked his
troops this.Morale was vastly important
in a battle situation, and he needed to know regularly, especially after an
incident like this.

She shrugged one shoulder,
"S'okay, I guess.A lot of people
are confused, wondering what the deal with X is.You know how rumors are," she waved her
hand dismissively, and returned her attention to the keyboard to run some
programs."They're all wondering the
same thing as you, why X went so crazy."

Zero nodded, "He is usually
more rational than that."

Lina said, "They can sort of
understand why X thought the way he did, but they're wondering why, if he
thought Duplex was a Maverick, why he didn't go through the proper
channels."

"Maybe he thought he didn't
have time," Zero added.

"Yeah, maybe, that's what
someone said.And they understand why X
thought what he did, after Double.Heck,
I might have thought the same thing.And
no one really likes Duplex anyway, so they weren't too sad about that,"
she smirked."But X just didn't
have the evidence and that's what everyone's confused about.X is always very particular about making sure
no one is Maverick and that the virus doesn't spread.Personally, I think he feels partly
responsible about it, because there was no Maverick virus before him, so he had
to keep an eye on it."She scoured
the screen curiously for a moment, distracted by having to think about a
difficult command. She finshed and looked back at Zero, "And then everyone
starts talking about what they know about X.You know, just the slightest suspiscious things that no one would have
thought twice about.Like Tyro says that
he transports out of here sometimes to a location in the antarctic.Not sure why, never says why, near an
unmanned ice station.But I don't think
anyone's worried about things like that."

She looked up at Zero, who was
obviously quite worried.His eyes were
skyward and he was biting his lip."Tell Addison I'm on my way,
please."And walked past her.

"Sure," she responded,
listening to the clop-clop of his metal armor on the floor.

Janus unplugged the Personal
Electronic Terminal from the mini-cannon.He switched down to the inventory list and made note of the condition
and amount of ammunition left.He then
updated the database remotely.With this
final entry, his work was finished and he stood up off his knees on the
fortification's parapet, a lonely perch overlooking the outside of the
base.

"You there,
Janus!" Duplex announced from across the walkway.Janus slowly turned around and looked up to
see the yellow reploid waddling towards him.The gray reploid furrowed his brows.

"You're quite bold meeting me
here, out in the open, if you've gotten what I think you have."

"You would not believe.My Star Cloak was this close to running out
of power.This close!"Duplex held up his fingers to indicate the
minuteness of his escape."I had to
run in behind Dr. Cain, find the damn thing, then-"

"Quiet! Quiet!" Janus nearly shouted.They were alone, but there was no sense in
taking chances.

"You've wanted me to get it for
forever and that's all you can say?Be
quiet?Do you know how hard I had to
work to get this thing?"

"I'm sure you've done well, I
don't need a full report.I'd be remiss
not to sing your praises, but now's not the time.Just give it to me."

Duplex barely had taken it out
before Janus snatched it and hid it away.

"What are we gonna use it for
anyway?" Duplex asked.

"You need not know that
now.We'll find a use for it, believe
me.Tonight, if possible.It's just another piece of the puzzle.You've done well, Duplex.Now be off with you, stay low-key, stay away
from people and don't act suspicious."

Duplex nodded and turned around as
Janus walked back to the door leading back to the interior of MHHQ and pressed
the adjacent black panel.